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And I want to read now from chapter five, verses one to eleven. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Not only so, but we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Let us rejoice also in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance, and endurance approvedness, and approvedness hope. And hope puts not to shame because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us.
For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, peradventure for the good man, some would even dare to die. And God commends his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
This morning, we tried our best to, first of all, to map out the major movements of thought in the epistle to the Romans, and then to come to consider the first great movement. I just put a few of its features on the, uh, uh, screen here, just to remind you of them. The reason why we need to be saved is, in the first place, because of the wrath of God against all unrighteousness. We find that men are without excuse. That God's wrath expresses itself now in the present. It will express itself in the day of judgment.
It expressed itself supremely, we noticed this morning, in, uh, at Calvary, in the propitiation that Christ offered. So that there is no salvation through the law, but there is a way of salvation. There is an acquittal given us by God himself, given to those that have faith in Jesus. Under that we're justified freely, meaning free and for nothing, by grace. It's through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who is set forth as a propitiatory. The way of salvation designed so that God himself remains just, while simultaneously the justifier.
And this way of justification is apart from the law and yet establishes the law. And then we went to look, eh, on into chapter four and saw Paul now referring to the old Testament, to its case law, its precedents and analogies, to show that the Old Testament itself, the law and the prophets, witness to this way that God has revealed of acquitting man and making him, uh, and accounting him righteous in his sight.
So in Romans four verses one to eight we have the actual cases of Abraham and David. What says the scripture in, in these two cases? For what the scripture says in these two cases will form precedents that will hold good throughout the whole of history and throughout all ages. Was Abraham justified by, uh, by works? Well, certainly he wasn't before God. That's not how God looked at him. But scripture explicitly states that he was justified by faith. And similarly, David describes the blessedness of the man who is forgiven. And of course, it is quite apart from the works of the law.
And then Abraham's case is followed on into history, his justification, what relation has it to circumcision? Well, he was justified before he was circumcised, which shows again, legally speaking, that his justification was completely independent of any condition of keeping the law. And in the third place, what is the relation of the law then to the promises that God made to Abraham? Well, actually, the law has nothing to do with them. All the law could do was to expose sin and therefore work wrath. But God has made the promises a matter of grace given to faith, so that the promises and the inheritance that go with it should be sure to all the seed.
And then in the fourth place, turning from precedent to analogy, Paul uses the experience of Abraham in order to show us what is meant by faith. If we are said to be justified by faith, very good, but what do you mean by faith? And it means nothing less than our complete inability to do anything of ourselves and believing God, who is able to bring life out of death. And so Paul establishes that there is an analogy between what Abraham was asked to believe and what we are asked to believe.
We likewise have our hope, our faith in a God who raises the dead. For our blessed Lord was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. And with that, of course, as we read through the sweep of Romans, we come to the first paragraph of chapter five. And the question right, uh, uh, uh, comes now, um, what exactly is the first paragraph of chapter five doing? Is it, as I have said, the climax, so to speak, the major climax of the first great movement of thought?
Or is it perhaps, as many scholars hold, not the end and climax of the first great movement, but the beginning of the second? Well, as you have heard, uh, me say, I hold that paragraph, uh, the first paragraph of chapter five, is in fact the climax of the first movement. And among the various things that, uh, uh, make me tend in that direction are considerations of the formal contents of the first two movements. You'll see the first one starts, as we saw this morning, with a diagnosis of sin.
Men are without excuse, whether they be Jew or Gentile, pagan or civilized, with the law or without the law. Men and all of them, the whole world, brought in guilty before God with not a word to say for themselves. Diagnosis of sin, men without excuse. When we come to movement A, likewise, that is, if you accept my analysis, it begins with a great diagnosis of sin. What's wrong with man, and where did it all go wrong, and how did it start? For if we have no clear notion of how man became a sinner, we shall scarce have clear notions in our head how he is to be, uh, put right.
So that on this side, yes, a brief paragraph, uh, but gives us a very powerful diagnosis of sin. I know it gives more, but it gives us a diagnosis of sin and shows us how all men, without exception, are sinners and how that came about. In the first movement, the great diagnosis of sin was followed by, excuse my, uh, spelling, but it's more convenient to spell it without an H when you haven't got room on the page, you'll see. This is English Reformed spelling. Uh, the Chinese are reforming their characters, I don't see why we shouldn't. Uh, they'll say it's a righteousness which is, uh, apart from the law and is based upon the propitiation that Christ has offered at Calvary.
Now over this side, the great diagnosis of sin is going to be followed by a question. If, uh, our salvation is all of grace, then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Shall we continue in sin? No. But now, pray, see what it is that has broken the bondage of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you, says six fourteen, because you are not under the law. You will remember that Paul, at the end of this paragraph, says that the way of declaring a man righteous is not against God's law, far from it, it establishes the law.
And yet, while it establishes the law, do observe what this says, that one of the first steps towards our freedom from the bondage of sin is to perceive that in Christ we are no longer under law. So our relationship to the law, here for our justification and here for our sanctification, see how they follow upon the diagnosis of sin. And whereas in this section it was apr- uh, appropriate for Paul to talk about Christ's death as a propitiation, in which, so to speak, we had no part, we were not joined with him in making propitiation.
Over this side, when it comes to Christ's death, it is the question of his death, burial, and resurrection, and our death, burial, and resurrection with him. But see how there is a counterpart each time. And as we go on, uh, what shall we say then, says chapter four. What about Abram and David and so on and so forth? Was his justification a reward? Certainly not. It is given to him that worketh not. Was it dependent on the law? No, the law, uh, works wrath.
Uh, and then at the end we were seeing how Abram is put before us, uh, and the nature of his faith as he contemplated his body now dead and put his trust in a God that could give new life. And on this side, having announced in six fourteen that, uh, uh, sin shall not have dominion over us because we're not under law, but under grace. Paul then immediately raises the question, well, what shall we say then to that? Shall we, uh, carry on sinning then? No, why not? Well, among other things, is the contemplation of sin and its wages.
Observe here the question, uh, justification is not a reward, a misthos. No. Uh, we get, uh, uh, salvation, justification as a gift. But let us be warned as believers that if we continue in sinning, there are certain wages. There are opsonia, the Greek word is. In other words, there are consequences. And if we are so foolish as to abuse grace, we shall reap consequences. And then, you know, the great, uh, discussion about wrath, about the law.
We're free from the law, and Paul then proceeds in chapter seven to analyze what the law was and what its true function was, and how law cannot, in that sense, the principle of law cannot make us holy any more than it could justify us. For if here it worked wrath, allow me the term here, here it worked rebellion. It worked all manner of concupiscence and brought down the displeasure of God. Not that there was anything wrong with the law, but there was a great deal wrong with us. And when Paul has shown us how impossible it is to produce sanctification on the principle of law, he ends up with his agonizing cry, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Look at the formal correspondence of ideas. And the answer to this is going to be, of course, the new life of the Holy Spirit lifting him above the principle, the law of sin and death. And I point out all that, this is mere formal arrangement of material and argumentation, to show that the second movement doesn't end here. It goes on right to the end of chapter eight where the whole thing is summed up.
Those whom God has justified, them he has glorified, and it takes our mind on to the coming great glory. And therefore, it is but natural, perhaps, to see here that this paragraph, chapter five, one to eleven, as similarly ending the first movement as this paragraph ends the second. This, as we have just read, takes us from the position where, having been justified, our hopes are raised to the coming glory, and we are assured of attaining to the glory of God. Mark now in the first movement the first great mention, uh, as far as we are concerned, uh, of the Holy Spirit and his work in the believer, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, reminding us how when we were weak, Christ died for us, and all the implications of that for the certainty that we shall be saved from wrath and that we shall attain the glory of God.
And similarly here, as commentators without number have pointed out, now this great tremendous outburst upon the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He leads us, he witnesses to us that we are children of God, and if children, heirs. He intercedes and comes alongside us and helps us in our weakness. And the whole passage once more ends up with the love of God, a tremendous expression of the love of God. So they would be some of my reasons for suggesting, uh, that formally this paragraph five one to eleven it ends the first movement.
But if you think otherwise, we shall not fall out over that, of course. Because when all is said and done, when normal creatures are reading their Romans, they pass anyway along the continuum of its text and through chapter four and on into chapter five and on and on and on and on. And the first paragraph of chapter five certainly, therefore, in one sense, forms a pivot between what has gone before and what follows. More to the point, it would be for us to ask ourselves now, what is its function? Wherever it belongs to, in the stream of the developing argument of the epistle, what is the function of the first paragraph of chapter five?
And what would you be doing, ladies and gentlemen, if you were now setting forth to teach it to your Bible class or church or whatever? Why is it there? And it seems to me that a little thought about that will be amply repaid, because it is exceedingly important. In Movement one as a whole, we've been thinking about justification and how we can be justified before God utterly by grace and faith. In Movement two, we're going on to think about our sanctification. Yes, but before we move on to think about sanctification, there's something else we ought to know, and would be exceedingly important for us to know if we are going to bear the rigorous lessons that God will teach us, not only from his word, but in the course of actual living.
If we will put up with the smut and the pain when God has to do with us like he did with the Israelites in the desert, lead them past the Red Sea where they sang fit to break their lungs and thought they were almost into the promised land forthwith. And from that height of spiritual joy, gladness, and emotion, lead them down into the waterless desert places of their journey and discover to them the horrible contents of their heart. Till that discovery of what was really within them of rebellion against the living God, in spite of all their earlier hymn singing and triumphal assertions, made them at some stages doubt whether there was anything in this whole business of salvation that Moses was preaching to them.
And some of them were inclined to think that they'd better go back and cut their losses and go back to Egypt. And we too, if we're going on into sanctification after we're justified, so to speak, there will come times in our life when God, in his merciful kindness, will lead us past for the moment the hymn singing into waterless deserts and broken hearts and veils of tears and exceeding discouragement, and will expose us to ourselves. What we shall find there could very well disappoint us. It won't disappoint God, of course, he knew it was there all the time. He's merely showing us what was there. But it can shatter our illusions about ourselves and what lovely people we are and how strong our faith is.
But you see, I don't think there's any way of getting rid of sin is about facing it and then repenting of it, and then seeking the grace of God to give us the victory and release from it. Be a long toil. Therefore, God in his mercy, before he sets us on the course of sanctification, so to speak, interposes this paragraph that we may be sure of certain things. What are the implications of having been justified? Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God. Oh, how important that is to get across to people who are now beginning to take God seriously and want to become holy.
That their peace with God, where does it come in? Not after years of effort of progress in sanctification, but the very moment that they have been justified, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And not only peace with God, but access into this grace wherein we stand. There's this great paragraph, every word is significant, isn't it? Now talking about what the older theologians used to, used to describe as our standing before God, as distinct from our state. The situation in which God has brought us through justification by faith, what is it?
What is the standing it give us, gives us? Well, it has brought us into this grace wherein we stand. Whatever you will discover about your heart afterwards, however bitterly disappointed you become, however frustrated and near to giving up hope you come, pray do remember it that as a believer justified by faith, your standing before God remains utterly firm and immovable. That is spiritual and psychological, exceedingly important to get across to those whom we teach. For it is endemic in the human heart that presently, though we wouldn't dream of being justified by works when we set forth valiantly on the course of, of, of sanctification, presently, if you please, we get it into our heads that our peace with God and our standing before God depends on our progress in sanctification.
When sometimes we seem to be going backwards instead of forwards, then some people come into very serious doubt as to their salvation. How important that we get this and what this paragraph is saying into people's hearts before, so to speak, they move on to sanctification, if you see what I mean. And not only that too. Before they start on the great course of sanctification, may we tell them? Dare we tell them? Yes, says God, go on and tell them. Go on. Don't be afraid to tell them.
That they may confidently exult in the certain expectation that they shall attain the glory. Oh God, there have been moments when only that certainty kept me going. Oh, what a merciful God that will be- assure the believer, if he has been justified by faith, that he shall attain the glory, however long and difficult the process in between. God isn't afraid to tell us. Indeed, he wants us to know the fact that there shall come triumph at last.
The goal achieved gives strength to stay the course. And then we need to know another big thing. We can exult in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works endurance. Patience, if you have an older translation, but in the sense of endurance. Why drag that in here? Well, we better know it now, because you see, it is good to talk about justification by faith, isn't it? That's delightful. All believers are justified.
All believers shall attain to the glory of God. Hey, wait a minute. There's a weak link here, isn't there? What happens if tribulation came along so severe it broke my faith and I ceased to be a believer? Would you say, you wicked lecturer? We wouldn't have had you here if we'd known. You don't doubt the eternal security of the believer, do you? No, not for one minute. Every believer eternally secure, but that isn't the point, you see. The question is, once a believer, always a believer? If it is possible for me to become a believer, but then later on, somehow for my faith to be broken and smashed and ruined and lost.
Well, then if I'm not a believer anymore, what's the good of you talking to me about the eternal security of the believer? I had a friend in the north of England. When I first met him, he told me how he'd been converted to Christ from atheism. He said, you know, I just have one fear, David. If one of my little girls were to run out in the street and get knocked over by a lorry, and God allowed it, I sometimes fear I couldn't go on believing in God as a God of love. Where should I stand then, if it destroyed my faith in God? Well, what is the situation then?
On this matter of the endurance of our faith? And here Paul picks up, doesn't he, the words of our blessed Lord, who is in the habit of using this term, notably in the parable of the sower, where our Lord talked of those, for instance, that are sown upon the rock, who believe for a while. But when trials come, they fall away. Why? Well, because they have no root in themselves, and never did have, of course.
Believing just for a while isn't any good, is it? John's gospel records several instances of that, of people who, in one sense, in a certain sense, profess to believe in the Lord Jesus. But their faith was not this genuine faith, and our Lord did not commit himself to them. The mark of genuine faith is that it endures. In the parable of the sower, there are four different results, are there not, of the sowing of the seed, and only one of them is any good. And that's those who, in an honest heart, receive the word of God and keep it and bring forth fa- bring forth fruit with endurance.
None of the others bring forth any fruit. They're useless. And when you come to think about it in the natural world, of course, any plant will tell you if you ask it. There isn't any other way of bringing forth fruit, is there? Except by endurance. Why, even cabbages don't go to their full overnight, and apple trees certainly don't bring forth fruit without a great deal of endurance. So that when tribulation comes, testings, as our Lord called them, how can we possibly exult in them? Particularly if those testings are the kind of testings that will demonstrate whether we be true believers or not.
In the course of my career in the university, I was obliged to engage in that cruel sport that is holding examinations. One would come in the gray light of the morning, half past nine, crack of dawn, uh, to the examination hall, and there would be four hundred poor creatures outside waiting to get in. Well, some of them actually were laughing, but the laughter very often was rather hollow. And, uh, most of them were looking very anxious and fraught. Or perhaps this paper was going to decide whether they got their degree or didn't get it.
How could you possibly rejoice in face of such a test? And how could I rejoice facing life's tribulation that will show whether I'm a true believer or not, if in my heart of hearts I wasn't sure I would come through the test? But you can rejoice, says Paul, you can confidently exult in the face of tribulation, knowing. God wants you to know this as well, that tribulation, where there is true faith to start with, works endurance, and endurance will demonstrate that you are genuine.
And that demonstrated fact that you are genuine will give rise to hope. So I don't think Paul ought to have been, uh, so sure about that. Anyway, I mean, you know, I mean, consult James and you'll see he talk rather differently. Oh no, he doesn't. As a matter of fact, he uses the same terms and says the very same thing. Count it all joy, he says, my dear brothers, when you fall into temptations. Why, how could we? Knowing that tribulation works endurance, he says. They both agree on the topic. Oh, how gracious and marvelous of God. We know, and other scriptures tell us what means God has at his disposal and uses constantly to maintain the faith of the believer all the way through.
And could take his hand and say, as he said in Isaiah, fear not, when you go through the waters, I will be with thee. And when you go through the floods, they will not overflow thee. One of the tortures that can come across some believers, you will know it from a pastoral point of view more than I, is their fear when life gets difficult, that above all things they'll lose their health, they'll lose their job, they'll lose their sanity, and they'll lose their faith. Mm. This paragraph is exceedingly important.
Now let us notice that this paragraph presents before us two grounds for, for pe- for, uh, for hope. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, and not only so, we exult in hope of the glory of God. And later, having let endurance have her perfect work and survived the trials, and those trials have shown us to be genuine, that demonstration of our genuineness gives another ground for hope. Yes, but don't let's confuse the two. It is right in our Christian life, isn't it, that we look for evidences that we are the children of God.
This epistle and others will tell us what we may look for. By this we know, says John, that we are children of God. By this we know that we know God. All kinds of evidences are suggested to us by which we may perceive that we are genuine children of God. It is right that we give, uh, patient attention to them and ask ourselves, do our lives show these evidences? Yes, but ladies and gentlemen, let's never fall into the trap of making our peace with God depend upon what evidences we perceive.
Some people have fallen into that trap, haven't they? In their desire to live holy lives, they have looked at the evidences, and presently they have based their peace with God upon the evidences. And the holier they became and the more sensitive their consciences, the less peace they enjoyed, of course. Where does God put peace in this paragraph? He doesn't say that having weathered the storm of tribulation and thus demonstrated ourselves to be genuine, then we can have peace with God. Oh, thank God, no. It is being justified by faith, right there and then we have peace with God.
And how many times must I look at my life and say, gooding old boy, well, yes, there are some evidences, but they're not what they ought to be, are they? What should I do then if I couldn't turn back and say, Lord, 'tis true, but Lord, oh, thank God, my peace with God depends on my initial justification. Yes. And our hope, says the paragraph, will not let us down. Uh, because the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts.
God's love for us, of course, poured out into our hearts and the deep well of our unconsciousness by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how the Holy Spirit strives to make us secure, and pastorally, how we need to administer it, don't we? Be careful, my brothers and sisters, if you will allow an old codger to issue a word of advice. Be careful, lest you exhort too much and have more exhortation in your preaching than gospel. I sat in a home with a beloved couple in Christ, let them be nameless and they won't mind my saying it.
But after twenty five years of devoted service to the Lord and sacrifice beyond many, now they've hit a very difficult patch in life. Said the husband to me, David, he said, we've been pushed right from the days of our conversion. We must be devoted to the Lord, a hundred percent devoted to the Lord and sacrifices to the Lord, a hundred and twenty percent of the Lord, seven days a week, if not eight. Isn't it time we had some time off? Ah, it's a kind of a state of heart that can come when people have been pushed with too much exhortation, and devotion to Christ has become a work, and a work of slavery, instead of the act of a freeborn son or daughter of God.
Oh, make sure that when you exhort, it is based on the delightful securities of the love of God, that God, by his spirit, builds into the heart of his people. Nothing less than that kind of security and peace with God will prove strong enough foundation to bear the weight of our responsibilities, both in sanctification and in devotion, and work for the Lord. What the argument that is that the Holy Spirit argues within us, we needn't now stop again to consider. We considered it this morning. I ask you to think that the love of God is this way.
The biggest thing God will ever do for you is not to give you a crown of glory or five or six galaxies to look after in the future, or a specially golden harp or something. The biggest thing that God will ever do for you, he has already done. And that was he gave his son for you. Pray tell me when it was, says the Holy Spirit. Would you like to remind me when it was? Suppose it was after you were converted some time, wasn't it, that God gave his son for you, when you were on the mend and improving and sizably devoted to the Lord.
Then God said, well, I don't know even now whether they're far enough advanced that I would give my son for them. No, no, of course not. While we were weak, while we were ungodly, while we were enemies and kicking God in the shins, then God gave his son for us. If that is so, now that we're justified, now that we're no longer enemies, now we've become children of God, it is absolutely certain that God's love will not let us go. We shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. And we can finally be confident in God himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we've received the reconciliation.
All right, with that foundation behind us, we better start now as, as best we can, looking at the program for sanctification. Second great movement of the epistle, starting in chapter five and verse twelve. And as is reasonable enough, the second movement goes back to the beginning again, to a great diagnosis of sin, just like the first movement began with a great diagnosis of sin. That's sensible enough, isn't it? For if now you're thinking in terms not of saving me from the wrath of God, but saving me from the wreckage of a sinful life, and making me holy, and eventually conforming me to God's Son, you better first ask yourself, well, what's wrong with the man?
You're so anxious to make me right and help me to live a good Christian life, or why don't I anyway? What's wrong with me? And here you should be warned against all inadequate diagnoses. No good coming to me and say, look here, my brother, pull up your spiritual socks. You see, because there's something wor- more wrong with me than that my spiritual socks fell down. It's more serious than, uh, even a good effort at pulling up my spiritual socks could put right. Why am I a sinner?
And Paul proceeds, uh, in this paragraph to tell us. Let's come to the clear statement, uh, of verse, uh, five nineteen, and then come back to the difficult and debated verses. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were constituted sinners, so even through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted, made righteous. Our trouble goes deep beyond us. In that sense, it isn't all our fault that we're sinners. What a merciful doctrine this is. Yes, standing before God's law in movement one, we are responsible and guilty and without excuse.
But now, standing in front of God's Holy Spirit, who's about to take us in hand to sanctify us, then from a practical point of view, how did we come to this terrible state? Well, be it known, it's not simply what I did. I was constituted a sinner, as far as I read verse nineteen, through what somebody else did. And all the terrible entail of it, and the heredity. And what is more, some of you were contributing causes, weren't you?
I mean, if I'd been born into a world full of absolute saints, if you, sir, not to speak of you, madam, but if you, sir, had been a bit more saint Clare. I might have had a better chance of getting on, mightn't I? But me, I was bad enough when I was born, but then suddenly to wake up and find I'd been born into a whole world full of sinners made life very difficult. Do be merciful on me, won't you, when you're proposing the course for putting me right. Pray consider how I came to be wrong. But if I were constituted a sinner by what somebody else did, oh, thank God, I can be constituted righteous by what somebody else did.
Through, through the disobedience of one, I was constituted a sinner, so by the obedience of one shall the many be constituted. And so Paul draws the parallel between Adam and Christ. He says, in fact, that Adam is a type, a picture of him that was to come, verse fourteen. Though, of course, then he is careful to qualify that and say that though in some respects he is a picture of Christ, there are parallels between Adam and Christ, of course there are very big differences between Adam and Christ.
He explains both the differences and the parallels. Let us therefore move back to the beginning of the paragraph, verse twelve, and see if together we can think through afresh these difficult verses on which theologians and Christians, serious thought, are greatly divided. At least let me tell you how I see them. Therefore, says verse twelve, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. What is that saying?
Many people think, many serious students think, that that's saying this, that sin entered our world through Adam's, uh, uh, through Adam, his one man sinned, and thus sin entered into the world. Death followed into our world, and death passed upon all men because that, in some sense, all men sinned in Adam. Death passed upon all men, not as a result of their own personal wrongdoing, but that they sinned in Adam. And they cite the case of children born innocent babes who nevertheless die, and they say they can't be dying for their own personal sins.
Why do they die then? Well, because they sinned when Adam sinned. They are in some sense guilty of Adam's sin, and therefore they die. For my own part, I do not think that Paul is saying that. Why not? Well, first of all, the fact that he says later on that death, uh, you'll see, reigned even over those who did not sin, verse fourteen, uh after the likeness of Adam's transgression.
If we all sinned in Adam, sinned when he sinned, how could it be said of us that we have sinned but not after the likeness of his transgression? If it's the same thing, if we sinned when he sinned, our sin must be his sin. His was a transgression, and so ours. But the verse asserts that that is not so. His sin was transgression. Ours, or not ours, but others, certain people in the course of history, sinned, but their sin was not like his. His was going against an explicit prohibition and was therefore a transgression. Their sin was different in that they had no trans- no prohibition to go against.
So they didn't transgress a law, there was none. There was no law. They sinned nonetheless. And Paul explains how that could be. Says Hebrews see uh, verse, uh, 13 to fourteen. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not, and here it would be very important to understand exactly what that Greek word says. The Greek does not say sin is not imputed when there is no law. The verb impute is used earlier in the epistle. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
It's a different verb used here. This verb means sin is not worked out and specified when there is no law. One could illustrate it to oneself thus. Suppose there were a place very much unlike, uh, Dublin, where there was no speed limit, nor was there any law on the statute book that forbade dangerous driving. So you go driving along the equivalent of their Nassau Street at 105 miles an hour at midday. Well, you've broken no law, and what you're doing isn't a transgression of the law.
So no one can charge you with having broken the law. Would that mean that you're not driving carelessly? Well, of course it wouldn't. You are driving very carelessly and without due regard to human life and limb. You are sinning, therefore. You're not loving your fellow man as you should. But you're not actually breaking a law, because there isn't a law of the city to that effect, that you shall not drive along Nassau Street at a hundred and five miles an hour. And what is more, if I said how badly are they sinning, how could you put a figure on it and estimate it and calculate it?
If you see there was a law that said you shall not go above eighty, you'll say, well, twenty five miles higher than eighty, that's bad enough. If there was a law that said you shall not go above thirty, poof, seventy five miles above, that is really some, isn't it? The existence of a law would help you to calculate and reckon out the gravity of the sin that has been performed. Without the law, you cannot measure it, cannot work it out, but the sin is there. Adam died when he transgressed an explicit positive prohibition.
These people died, you say, how does that come about? Because they didn't have any explicit prohibition. The law hadn't been given them. I know, says Paul, they died nonetheless, didn't they? Why? Because sin was in the world. They sinned, though not after and in the same way as Adam. They sinned without any prohibition. They sinned nonetheless, and they died, for all have sinned, whether there was a prohibition or not. So I take it that the charge is this, that by one man sin entered into the world, death followed in its trails.
Death passed upon all men because all have personally sinned. You say, what about children? Ladies and gentlemen, as I understand it, they are a special case and not here to the point of being discussed. Therein, of course, you may well disagree with me. I'm merely giving my view, and in the question times we can hear your r- reactions. But even though we were not responsible for Adam's sin, his sin is his act letting sin into our world. We were constituted sinners. I take that myself to refer to the fact that we are born not as unfallen men and women, but as men and women damaged in their constitutions.
Damaged bodies, possibly with damaged emotions, fallen men and women. We shall not be condemned, shall we? Ultimately, let me say it very carefully, we shall not be condemned for being sinners. We shall be condemned, says our blessed Lord, for not believing God's Son. This is the condemnation. Light is come into the world. He that believes is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already.
Men will be condemned for not believing. For salvation there is in Christ. And in this respect, Christ is not only equal to Adam, he is far superior to Adam. Of course, there is a connection of thought, and that will be expounded to us. But lest we get the wrong idea, do see, uh, there is first of all the contrast. Verse fifteen tells us, but not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto many.
So there's going to be excess upon the side of Christ. And Paul gives examples of what he means by the excess. Verse fifteen, you'll see, for if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto many. There's more blessing on the side of Christ than there was damage on the side of Adam. And again, verse sixteen: and not as through one that sins, so is the gift, for the judgment came of one unto condemnation, the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification.
One man sin, if one man's one sin was enough to pervert the whole world. Only think now, any one of us has been guilty not of one sin, but of thousands, if not millions of them. And yet in Christ, through the free gift, we can be justified. And what is more, you'll see, if by the trespass of the one, says verse seventeen, death reigned through the one relentlessly and irresistibly, much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through one.
Oh, the ultimate triumph is not only being alive, but reigning in life, life having its full authority, unchallengeable by death. So the balance is on the side of Christ, yet there is a similarity. So as through the one the trespass, trespass, so as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation, even so through the one act of righteousness, uh, the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. There is a parallel. And similarly, and again in verse nineteen: for as through one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous.
If I was ruined as a result of Adam's sin, and being sinful, have myself sinned and incurred death. Nonetheless, God has a salvation adequate to that diagnosis, and he offers me a savior. Through what Christ did, I can be constituted righteous, and not only constituted righteous, but with all the benefit and surplusage of God's great salvation. Oh, how much more there is in the work of Christ, then. And Paul presses it home in verses twenty, twenty one. The law came in beside, he said, that the trespass might get less, no, that it might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, bound exceedingly. This is not to encourage antinomianism, but all thank God for the riches of his grace. Think of all the sin you can think of. You thought of it enough? Well, now you're worse than you think. And God has given his law that it might expose transgression to be far more than people imagined it was. Have you thought of every possible and conceivable sin you have done? Double it to make sure. Then get reading the Bible again. When you've read it, you'll want to double it again. Add it mountain upon mountain.
And such is God's salvation that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Oh, what a gospel message to start a course on sanctification with, isn't it? Make sure, my brothers and sisters, when you start people on a course of sanctification, you start with that kind of emphasis. Or if we don't, we shall preach sanctifi- uh, justification as a gift, as part of our gospel, and then, without wanting to, we shall start preaching sanctification as though it were law.
And law cannot sanctify. Only the Savior, through his spirit and his life, can sanctify us. And sanctification is a gospel, ladies and gentlemen, and not a mere duty that we have to perform once we have been saved by grace.
